scholarly journals The Architectural Tradition of Ponnani, Kerala: A Historic Malabar Port Town

Author(s):  
Swathy V Subramanian

Ponnani, a historic port town located at the mouth of the Bharathappuzha River on the Arabian Sea, was a prominent trading center on the Malabar coast of Kerala, India, in the 15th and 16th centuries. It is one of Malabar’s few surviving historic towns, with its heritage sites intact along with its building types, historic streets and alleys, local culture, and traditions. But some of its historic buildings are on the verge of dereliction and need immediate attention. This study attempts to convey an understanding of Ponnani, with an analysis based on field visits and existing literature. The relationship between the region’s architecture and landscape and current threats to its heritage is explored. Its vanishing traditional knowledge systems and vernacular architectural types are also discussed, in what may serve as a reference for adaptive use by future generations.

Author(s):  
Betül Ankaralıgil ◽  
Gülşen Dişli

<p>It is important to preserve historic buildings in their original conditions, not only to protect building integrity but also to sustain Traditional Knowledge Systems. As stated by ICCROM, those Traditional Knowledge Systems play an important role in the conservation and management of heritage. Among them, building service systems including heating, cooling, ventilation, lighting, drainage, and their architectural construction technology help sustain heritage buildings and extend their life cycle with a minimum level of energy demand. Passive survivability means also contribute to comfort conditions, opening new scenarios for the designing of contemporary buildings. Hence, in this research, first, traditional Kutahya houses were examined in terms of their construction, technology, and architecture. Then, among them, Lajos Kossuth House, dated the 18<sup>th</sup> century, has been chosen as an exemplary to investigate its traditional building service systems in more detail from the point of circularity in construction, their contribution to circular economy, Cradle to Cradle (C2C) strategies, and design for adaptability principles (DfA).  It is observed that they are mostly in a well-preserved condition in terms of both function and character-defining features. However, after 1982, during its refurbishment work to be used as a museum, some of its original details, especially the ones related to waste and clean water were destroyed. To be able to sustain and protect the rest of the original service systems and related architectural construction details in this case study building, they should first be documented, well defined and their recognition should be increased to serve as a model for the maintenance of similar building systems. In addition, it might be possible to transfer the knowledge of those passive survivability means and circular construction principles to contemporary buildings.</p>


2009 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 51
Author(s):  
Salina Abdullah ◽  
Ern Chen Loo

Research on social and environmental accounting (SEA) has mainly concentrated on disclosure of SEA by corporate bodies, where investigations on ones attitude towards SEA are rarely discussed. SEA is a medium that develops relationships between business and society, community and nature. In addition, SEA involves a concept of sustain ability; where natural resources need to be sustained for the needs of future generations (Alhabshi et al., 2003). SEA also tries to recognise the role of accounting in sustainable development and the use of environmental resources. There are arguments that the young generations today are not fully aware of preserving these natural resources as well as handling social and environmental issues wisely. This perhaps link closely to their belief and cultural background. Hence, this paper examines the influence of gender and belief factors on the undergraduate students’ attitude towards SEA. Four dimensions of belief (fixed ability, quick learning, simple knowledge and certain knowledge) proposed by Schommer (2005) were adapted to analyse how belief factors have influence on their attitude towards SEA. An independent sample t-test was used to examine the relationship between gender and students’ attitude towards SEA. Spearmen’s correlation was employed to show the relationship between belief and attitude towards SEA. The results revealed that gender differences did not show influences on their attitude towards SEA. It was found that there is a significant relationship between belief and students’ attitude towards SEA. Students who believe on the importance of SEA tend to report positive attitude towards SEA. Perhaps findings of this study may provide some information on the SEA education and further be incorporated in the syllabus.


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-93
Author(s):  
Fulvio Mazzocchi

This article argues that different cultures and their respective knowledge systems should partake to the sustainability debate. The focus is on insights that indigenous knowledge may provide, analyzing the principles which oversee indigenous relationship with nature, like reciprocity and caretaking. These principles move from a profound sense of unity and interconnectedness and put emphasis on the importance of giving back to nature. They offer an alternative perspective on sustainability that challenges the Western view. Such a view is still focused on maintaining the possibility of exploitation and embedded in a sense of separation from nature. The article discusses the need of creating a laboratory for sustainability, that is, a genuinely pluralist space in which multiple cultural expertise can interact and mutually enrich, yet maintaining their distinction and integrity. The main motivation of such an endevor should be to redefine the notion of sustainability in a more refined and thoughtful way: this is something vital for present and future generations.


2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 355-368
Author(s):  
Victoria Bianchi

This article explores how performance and character can be used to represent the lives of real women in spaces of heritage. It focuses on two different site-specific performances created by the author in the South Ayrshire region of Scotland: CauseWay: The Story of the Alloway Suffragettes and In Hidden Spaces: The Untold Stories of the Women of Rozelle House. These were created with a practice-as-research methodology and aim to offer new models for the use of character in site-specific performance practice. The article explores the variety of methods and techniques used, including verbatim writing, spatial exploration, and Herstorical research, in order to demonstrate the ways in which women’s narratives were represented in a theoretically informed, site-specific manner. Drawing on Phil Smith’s mythogeography, and responding to Laurajane Smith’s work on gender and heritage, the conflicting tensions of identity, performance, and authenticity are drawn together to offer flexible characterization as a new model for the creation of feminist heritage performance. Victoria Bianchi is a theatre-maker and academic in the School of Education at the University of Glasgow. Her work explores the relationship between space, feminism, and identity. She has written and performed work for the National Trust for Scotland, Camden People’s Theatre, and Assembly at Edinburgh, among other institutions.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (24) ◽  
pp. 8930
Author(s):  
Akira Sasaki ◽  
Fu Xiang ◽  
Rina Hayashi ◽  
Yuko Hiramatsu ◽  
Kazutaka Ueda ◽  
...  

We have been studying a sightseeing support application using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons and mobile phones since 2014 to support sightseeing in Nikko, one of Japan’s World Heritage sites. Travelers can receive information relating to their position by using this application. We tried to use some psychological effects to increase travelers’ satisfaction when they receive such information. Moreover, we tried to emphasize travel memories of the place (scenery, culture, food, etc.) to encourage them to revisit or inspire their friends to visit it. Our tests prove the usefulness of our sightseeing support application for enhancing the travel experience. However, we had not yet developed a function to provide information that met the travelers’ intentions or needs. Moreover, it is hazardous to use a smartphone during walking, especially in an unfamiliar place. If a traveler uses a smartphone during walking, they might miss the beautiful scenery, historic buildings, and exotic atmosphere. We tried to adapt our sightseeing support application for use with a wearable device (smartwatch) to avoid using a smartphone during walking and introduced a prospect theory to evaluate information according to personal interest and behavior. Our experiments proved that our application provided the most appropriate sightseeing information to travelers and prevented danger during walking.


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Dickson Adom

Biodiversity management in Ghana has been largely driven by scientific conservation models. The time-tested and useful traditional conservation ethos in the Ghanaian cultural and artistic elements such as festivals, proverbs, cosmological belief systems and taboos are often watered down by conservationists in biodiversity conservation schemes. This is due to conservationists’ lack of clear-cut guidelines on how to effectively utilize the traditional knowledge systems in complementing the scientific conservation models they are well versed. The developed traditional biodiversity strategy was based on the findings from a robust phenomenological study conducted among purposively and randomly sampled key stakeholders in biodiversity management in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. The document aims at offering comprehensive information and guidelines to conservationists on effective ways of implementing traditional knowledge systems in biodiversity conservation issues in Ghana. It ultimately aims at filling the dearth in traditional knowledge systems that have been an age-long problem for the conservation ministries and agencies in Ghana. The informative directions in the developed traditional biodiversity strategy would offer another lens to addressing conservation issues in Ghana while acting as a viable complement to the scientific models. This would ultimately maximize and enrich the conservation strategies for managing Ghana’s biodiversity.


2014 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marko Nikolic ◽  
Nadja Kurtovic-Folic ◽  
Aleksandar Milojkovic

At the time of changing economic circumstances, adaptation and conversion of historic structures is an increasingly popular approach. Some historical buildings are very suitable for the revitalization into the modern hotels. The paper analyzes the relationship of the hotel, the city and its architectural heritage, as well as some of the factors that led to the eruption of alternative models of hotels, shown through a series of successful solutions. Many challenges of hotel design in historic buildings are listed and corresponding solutions are offered. Some methodological directions are indicated, and certain guidelines and principles for further activities in this field are formulated. In conclusion their applicability in practice is discussed, and certain disadvantages and limitations are listed.


2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 236-243
Author(s):  
Karimah Khitami Aziz

Growth and development in childhood need to be considered to shape future generations are healthy, intelligent and qualified. Maintenance of children's health is carried out since fetus until age of 18 years. Meanwhile, children at the age of first 5 years of life have a low immune system that is susceptible to various diseases including pulmonary TB disease. One effort to maintain maternal and child health is by giving exclusive breastfeeding. The decline in the use of exclusive breastfeeding in developing countries, especially in urban areas, is the result of socio-cultural changes in the community. Pulmonary TB is a public health problem that is one of the global commitments in the MDG’s that must be controlled. Pulmonary TB is an infectious disease caused by an infection of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis and has attacked almost one-third of the world's population. Children's pulmonary TB is a TB disease that usually attacks children aged 0-14 years. Of the 9 million new cases of TB that occur worldwide each year, an estimated 1 million (11%) of them occur in children under 15 years.


Atlanti ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 229-237
Author(s):  
Andrei Rybakou

The article is devoted to the search for optimal solutions for building the relationship between public and private archives. The author acknowledges that the documents formed in the activities of private organizations have value and are subject to permanent storage for future generations. However, it is impossible to keep all the documentation, therefore, when selecting documents for permanent storage, it is necessary to take into account the principles and criteria for disposal developed by archival science, to apply them in a complex and creatively. When organizing work with private archives and accepting their documents in state archives, it is necessary to proceed from the property of the documents and, depending on the established legal relations and the value of documents of specific organizations, apply different approaches.


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